Schroedinger's Last Laugh
by Saint-Whatername
Summary: 'I assume this is because due to the impossibility of me living in that universe as Marie, the universe superimposed Elaine onto my existence. Though time cannot be rewritten, my memories and appearance sure can.'
1. Prologue - Marie Elaine Jackie

Schroedinger's Last Laugh

In every universe you exist, but in only one do you get to live. That is, except me.

When I was born and named Marie Baranski, I was also not; Yet I undeniably was.

At the age of 8 When I first leapt and discovered my life as Elaine Brown, I felt disconnected and alone, yet I also felt horribly and irrevocably right.

When I discovered a world of comic books and people like me, then inexplicably leapt into that world, to the place I left behind I ceased to exist where I once had. Yet I lived on, I always live on.

I have leapt to my memory 23 times in my 19 years not-existing. Though perhaps I have leapt every morning since I first drew breath, though only to a mirror universe, where everything is the same, yet unsettlingly different.

Different world come with different profiles. Though often the altercations are minor, such as a deeper tan, freckles, an accent, scars, tattoos, etc. I think once I had a rather unfortunate piercing in a rather unfortunate place.

When I was 16 I discovered that I could control my ability, from that time on I have only leapt twice. Once out of that existence, and once back into it.

Today is a Friday, and I am currently residing on Earth-161. I call this place my home as I have lived here my entire life, but I arrived here sometime last fall. I have taken upon the alias of Jackie Winter. That's not my name here but I decided that I want to live a life I carve, not one predetermined for a girl I've never met.

I've made many friends throughout my stolen lives, but the only one I've met who I'll ever truly trust to understand me, is a man by the name of Wade Wilson; Better known to many as Deadpool.

Ultimately I guess it was due to his actions that we ended up in Gotham City, together, however it was through my own negligence, that he left alone. Now I grow tired and it exhausts my ancient mind to speak, but I will try once more. Finally, once more to recount to someone my simultaneously too short and overstayed life. Once more before I give in to Death, who's arms are beaconing me beyond the veil. It is almost my time.

But before then, let me recount the events of those short few weeks, of what feels like an eternity ago. Who knows, maybe it happened in another life.

Woooh okay so this is going to be quite the challenge guys, but I'm sure that together we can all get through this! I have the wonderful Michael Smith and Madison May as my back-up team, helping me to organise my thoughts and build upon our combined ideas.  
Really this fanfic would have made no sense without them XD  
Let me know how you all feel about the fanfic to come in the comments, I can't wait to get started!


	2. Chapter 1 - I Leaped

Schrödinger's Last Laugh

 _I'll Be Good by Jaymes Young_

The ocean is living; a great organism of which life has ended and began. A grain of sand. **Invisible**. Yet, thousands can drown a man. Strangled shrubbery and jagged thorns wrestle through the grains; their battle for land thickens towards the retreat.

However, the brittle stems become thick bramble. And bramble becomes stone. Stone quickly develops into a harsher strain of infection. **Concrete**. The brash being twists and contorts, cracking painfully, growing protrusions within its cruel flesh, gouging at the impossible sky.

Suddenly the grains of insignificant sand return but now they are molten and cooled. Ripping into the face of the demon they become mirrored coliseums; a land of steel giants. Cold and impersonal. **Industrial**.

 **New York City**.

The epicentre of innovation, of growth, of innumerable failures. Thousands come and go, carving their journeys like woodworm, rotting away the concrete and sand monsters they all help to feed. Ignorant as they fight blindly to be individual, all resembling the grains of sand.

And, of course, the mutants that fight to preserve it all.

The ones the world acknowledge, that are respected and feared accordingly and idolised within their towering shard of man-made glacier. Nevertheless, any un-hindering front the tower provided was severely undermined by the facade within.

A drunkard staggers, his reflexes compromised by the chemicals slowly poisoning his blood. He trips and falls, cracking a mirror worth a working family's annual income. He halts further movement to regroup his thoughts and limbs and his eyes catch on his splintered reflection. He pauses to mull over the irony of his fractured face, bringing a clumsy hand to the light within his chest; a phantom ache radiating through the cavity.

But the remorse fades fast; a harsh cackle escapes his slurred lips as he continues his destructive rampage.

Across town, three unappealing and shady persons gather in a grease lined cesspit loosely resembling an alleyway.

A chain link fence cages in one entrance, decorated almost charmingly with dozens of misguided plastic bags. These of which had impaled themselves upon the sharp pin pricks of bent metal. Bags of waste, broken furniture and heaps of litter festered in each corner. Shards of glass and stained needles provide a carpet of infection and addiction.

The appearance of the area was incomparable, however, to the stench. A smell quite glorious in its magnitude, putrid fish and human waste, and perhaps a couple of sticky summer days attributed to the atmosphere of decay and neglect. Perhaps this was where the fall out materialised: the hundreds of years of human abuse of the land. All summarised in one, 6 foot by 10 foot squat.

Wrapped in a thick winter coat, one of the individuals huff and re-adjusts their tan leather gloves, encasing their deceptively small hands. Perhaps one could mistake this person for an elderly man, however, those who stood close enough due to their prominent cheek bones and arched brow bones, could plainly see that they were in fact a young woman.

With a voice crackling like an old record player, she fumbled with her coat, mumbling,

"Again kid, it's really very simple if you pay attention."

Towering above her, a man in a red suit giggles, the sound contradicting the thick muscles wrapped around his neck and arms. They seemingly ripple beneath the mottled skin. He toys with a solid hand gun at his hip. The dull matte metal did not twinkle evilly in the light, but rather its presence was like a black void; even in averting your eyes you can still feel it's cruel presence. Two thick seams ran parallel down the dome of his skull, within their stitches blackening blood crusted and gun residue practically radiated from the suit itself. He shook his head fondly, petting the girl's hair with hands like a saucepan.

"You tell 'em, tiger..."

A shorter man sighed, indignantly.

"I'll have both of you know I take personal offence to that statement. Why am I always victimised?"

Finally, in a suit similar to the previous, except his physique if far more subtle, the gentle curves of his arms and legs provided suggestive inclination towards his strength and speed. His thin red gloves are worn at each fingertip, fraying akin to rope burn across the palms. Thick, rubber in black strips webs over his entire suite, congealing in the centre to create the emblem of a spider.

The three laughed good heartedly, though notably hushed as their voices bounced across each sweating brick. The younger of the males spoke first, humour lingering in his voice.

"Okay, you leap though time and space and you take on a new life, where you get their memories. Correct?"

Amusedly the girl shook her head, sighing contentedly. Though she remained patient with the man, having a distinct sense of de ja vu.

"No, no. Not quite. I can't leap through time and space, I leap into alternate realities. I don't take another person's memories, I just inherit the memories I would have had if I'd been born in that universe."

The man nodded slowly, though his confusion was evident on his face.

"I assume this is because due to the impossibility of me living in that universe as Jackie, the universe superimposed Elaine onto my existence. Though time cannot be rewritten, my memories and appearance sure can."

The younger man sighed, rubbing his spandex clad hand over his shoulders, easing the deep rooted knots within. After a few moments of restless shuffling of boots against gravel, he cleared his throat, and spoke.

"Prove it."

Tunnelling vision, ears ringing, she could practically taste the bile that threatened to claw up her throat at the thought. She hasn't leapt for so long... What if she does it and can't get back?

The tallest man shifted his gaze down to her frozen smile not quite reaching her eyes, hastily, he burst into life; Rambling through nonsense, searching for a scape-goat to defuse the painfully familiar glassiness to her gaze-

"Fine. Wade, hold my coat."

Violently shrugging off her thick protective wears Jackie huffed and began backing down the alley. Wade left stuttering in objection he complacently took the heavy fabric in one arm, and batted the other male on the back of his head.

"Now you've done it, Petey..."

The younger male squeaked in an embarrassingly childish voice in his defence, however his objections fell on deaf ears, as Jackie reached the chain link fence, span on her heel, and broke out into a bolt neck sprint.

Peter watched in confusion as the woman ran head long toward him, seemingly destined to send them both tumbling into the filth scattering the pavement. Yet just when he knew there wasn't time for her to slow down, he gasped.

In a blink of an eyelid she was gone. Any suggestion of her previous position seemed to shimmer in the dim alley, like a bright light burned onto the front of your cornea. Peter stood frozen in disbelief.

After suspended moments, still in the loose breeze of New York City, Wade gently gripped the other male by his shoulders and guided him to the side of the alley. A darkness began to grow where he once stood, as a flower blossoming or a black hole gaining matter as it expands. Sparking, cracking, twisting at the edges of their vision static filled the air, the blackness growing in it's depth and potentiality, until finally a screech like ripping fabric called out into the night.

Tumbling down onto the festering floor from a non-discernible source, Jackie sprawled, her hair whipping out of it's modest knot in a non-existent wind. Peter rushed forward to her air, but before he lay a single hand on her bare shoulder Wade's strong arms held his frail form back.

Sitting back on her hunches, panting heavily, Jackie held up a rolled up stack of comic books in her clenched fist in victory. With a satisfied grin, she gave a victorious burst of laughter, as she spread the comic books into a fanned semi-circle in front of knees.

"Wait, what are those... Jack, what are those!?"

Chuckling, Wade place his hand on the base of Peter's neck, comradely pushing him down towards the pile of comics, where he hesitantly picked up one in particular; Across the cover, swinging in a suit like his own on a delectably drawn web through New York. In one hand, the illustrated man clutched his mask, revealing his face, of which looked discomfortingly like Peter grinned.

Peter gasped, finally reading in bold block letters, his very own arachnid pseudonym.

"You weren't kidding! This is... Actually very unsettling I think I need to sit down..."

Once again, Wade chuckled, stooping to scoop up another one of the comics. Fondly, the man stroked a hand over the depiction of a man with a similar build and suit, waltzing towards the reader with a post-apocalyptic background, rising smoke in his wake.

"Aw come on Petey, it's not that bad! Look, they got your good side…"

While the two men squabbled pettily, the girl coyly smiles.

Standing with a suppressed grunt, her tan gloved hands select the final comic laying on the shiny wet pavement. Curiously, she didn't recognise the man on the cover, nor the name, however before she managed to get a real look at the thing Wade reached over her small stature and snatched the comic.

With a mock gasp, the man skimmed through the contents, only really looking at the pictures and ignoring the majority of the text. The man on the cover wore all black. His suit appeared to be made up of a network of interlocking rubber plates, creating a durable body armour. He wore a long midnight cape which swept about his ankles, and a mask which only defining features were two pointed horn like peaks on the crown. Wade hummed and opened his mouth to undoubtedly reel out a never ending monologue on absolutely nothing of importance, when Jackie beat him to the pip.  
"Do either of you hear that?"

A faint tremor filled the earth bellow them, almost unnoticeable at first, however the persistence of the invisible drilling intensified, gaining in magnitude as dust kicked up about them in the wind's turmoil. Peter slipped his hand under Jackie's arm protectively, when with one final God fearing crack, a jet like machine grounded to a halt through the sky above them.

New York seemed to hold it's breath, tense seconds of heavy silence settled above the low humming of distant engines. Peter's spandex clad fist tightened on Jackie's arm, subtly beginning to push her further back into the alley.

A white light blinded the three temporarily, a couple seconds passed before a high pitched screech seemed to completely fill the air and within their heads. Jackie was thrown down onto the pavement by Wade's forceful protection. For a few moments it appeared to Jackie that she had found herself in a old movie, the world was silent except for a piercing white ringing reverberating though her mind. Squinting open her heavy eyelids, Jackie watched dumbfounded as Wade ran out into the street light flooded road, she vaguely registered a strange pale creature lunging towards him- it's monstrous jaws gaping open- before its head was separated from its body by Wade's merciless katana. Jackie's eyes slid over to the form beside her, Peter was crouching and screaming wordlessly in Jackie's face.

All of a sudden, the carefully attentive senses Jackie had momentarily lost returned is quick cannon of each other. The sheer volume of the chaos erupting from beyond the alley was tremendous; the odd cocktail of screeching alarms, metal upon concrete and unearthly bellows from alien jaws created a symphony of perfect chaos. Peter shook Jackie's shoulder, roughly drawing her attention back to him.

"Listen to me, Jackie! You **must** stay **right** here, it's too dangerous, so you **must** stay put! **Don't**. **Move**. "

Peter then scrambled to his feet, stumbled slightly upon doing so, but quickly regained his footing before he shot out from the alleyway, leaving Jackie behind. Struggling to her feet, Jackie shuffled her boots across the alley until her hands touched the cold, grimey wall, her eyes never leaving the mouth of her safe haven. Guiding herself with numbed legs, she drew herself closer to the entrance, careful to still keep back far enough to not draw attention to herself.

A rippling bolt of light energy flashed inches from Jackie's skull, her form crumbling down into the rotting stench of garbage and quivering, sharp-clawed rats. A great lanky creature with skin as pale as a corpse skidded down the alleyway and hit the far fence. Following close behind, a metal clad figure strolled leisurely, the red hues and gold embellishments of the suite bouncing off the orange street lights. His shadow cast a tall imposing figure upon the creature, which lay motionless upon the ground.

Watching on terror, Jackie's dilated eyes locked onto the scene. She recognised the suite as the one belonging to Tony Stark. The creature let out a scraping sigh, the sound of chalk on brick. Without so much as a blink the metal clad man stamped his boot down upon the monster, faint clicking and cracking echoed through the alley as he ground down his boot into it's iridescent flesh. A chuckle escaped the male's throat, travelling into the air through a speaker within the helmet.

"Ugly creature."

Jackie flung herself towards the mouth of the street as another blast of white hot light shot out of the man's palm, and into the immobile creatures cranium. In the process, she knocked free an avalanche of festering garbage, causing the man to spin towards her position, he barely had time to reach out and call her name before she fell face first into the chaos beyond the alleyway.

As her knees and elbows scraped the sandpaper side-walk, a distant explosion shook the earth. Ash fell all around as though a higher power attempted to stifle the battle bellow grey snow, the flakes settling upon Jackie's hair and staining her paling features.

Crawling through discarded debris, the petrified youth wedged herself under a collapsed concrete building slab, the shambled creating a shelter from the war around her. She gazed in disbelief, sheer terror running white hot through her veins.

"Natasha! We need you up here!"

A man clad in blue, red and white sprinted into Jackie's line of vision, his shield whipping up to counter the attacks of a hulking, boneless beast. It's spine twisted and turned at odd angles, his arms seemed disproportionately long to it's short deformed body.

The battled as such, Jackie watched transfixed, through the cacophony the familiar voices of Peter and Wade rang above all others. She was unsure of what their frantic yells conveyed but perhaps it was her name, garbled among the throng of pale beasts.

Suddenly, without warning, the battling man's shield flew from his grasp, and skidded to a oddly accurate halt, right before Jackie's curled up form. It felt to Jackie as if the world flung itself into slow motion, her eyes drifted up to the man, who's own two, clear blue's locked directly onto her own. Behind him, she watched the beast raise it's talons, priming for it's fatal blow where inevitably, the life that stood before her would be released from it's mortal coil.

Jackie felt her resolve harden, and her muscles tense.

Flung back into full speed, she clawed through the dirt out into the open. Her gloveless fingers grasped the shield, the cool metal burning her with it's strange indifference to it's surroundings. Drawing back her arm, with all of her might, she flung the piece towards it's owner, which instantly was swung up to parry the oncoming attack.

A brief moment of satisfaction graced Jackie, her exhausted mind relaxed for a few seconds as she reflected on how she had done something good. Which is, of course, why she was so horribly, astoundingly caught off guard when another of the foul creatures appeared besides her defenceless form. Wade looked over, as a blood-curdling scream left her lips.

" **JACKIE!"**

She felt it building, the unavoidable void tingling at the corners of her vision, her hair standing straight on the back of her neck, she closed her eyes, anticipating her immanent leap.

But a solid mass grasped her waist, a frantic voice screamed beside her head as it's owner's arms wrapped protectively around her. Her eyes snapped open as she tried to struggle away; away from her instincts and away from her friend's grip. But unfortunately, it was too late.

And to the astonishment of the Tony Stark and Steve Rodgers, the pair vanished.


	3. Chapter 2 - Metamorphosis

_Where Is My Mind - Pixies_

Tumbling like rag-dolls, the two leaped. Though it was a familiar trip to one, Wade would later go on to describe the incident akin 'to actual and literal death'. A concept, of which, he was far more comfortable with.

He felt his very being change, no longer was his plane of existence what he had grown to know, but now it morphed into an unrecognisable mesh of dimensions.

Colour surrounded him, flashing in front of his eyes and dancing across the landscape of his mind; he began to find it difficult to define one state from the other. With each colour a new sensation washed over his body, a chill like none he had ever experienced cut through him, yet left promising searing heat in it's path.

Finally, just when Wade felt he couldn't remember his existence before the leap or even fathom an existence outside of it, a blinding light blistered from within himself. The energy scraping through his mind, his existentialism return. Heavy and mortal.

The pair toppled unceremoniously across graveled concrete, their elbows and shoulders scraping to an undignified halt.

Once Wade cracked open his scarred eyelids, the action feeling forced and alien, he assessed his unfamiliar surroundings. The two appeared to be sprawled across the roof of a tower block, judging by the stench of grease and destitute seeping from the bulging vent shafts to their right, perhaps a residential building.

A grunt of exertion from beneath the safety of his armoured chest and outstretched arms gently reminded Wade of his young companion Jackie. Rolling onto his back to free her formally trapped form, her bleary eyes focused on the whites of his mask.

Wade was sure her familiar yet unremarkable hazel irises were bleaching out at the edges, fading with each second. However, he reasoned that perhaps it was a trick of the light or a lingering hallucination from the leap. Sensing his concerns, Jackie hastily blinked away from his gaze and rocked up onto her haunches, her face hidden by her shaken loose locks of hair.

"We need to get back."

Mumbling, her voice croaked, squeezing and cracking at the edges as though the first words she'd ever spoken. Wade shook his head softly and pulled himself up besides her, his head hanging forwards, his centre of balance shaken and un-trustworthy. Brushing his leather clad hand over his throbbing skull, he nodded slowly with a groan, agreeing with the notion to return.

"If we don't get back soon, I'm going to start changing into someone else. And trust me, it will not be fun to change back agai-"

A familiar eardrum bursting screech pierced the air, the alien vocal chords sounding just as disorientated as Wade inwardly felt. A shriller, feminine scream followed, it's creator definitely human, and decidedly petrified.

Jackie bounced to her feet, her hair falling away from her face to reveal high cheekbones, pale blue eyes and Cupid's bow lips, extraordinarily contrasting to the features that Wade has come to understand to be his friend. He attempted to follow her lead, but his body was still not willing to follow commands at that precise moment, still in temporary shock. As he sat dumbly, Wade watched on in astonishment as Jackie pealed back her thick leather gloves and protective winter coat, of which formally had been practically stapled to her body the entire time Wade had known her. Tilting her neck to the side and back, the bones popping in protest, the young woman grit her teeth and broke out into break-neck sprint. Straight towards the 10 story drop off of the ledge of the tower.

"Jack- Wait!"

Spluttering and coughing, Wade found himself unable to fully convey his urgent protests, his chest wracked with spasms of agony. With one final glance over her shoulder, Jackie's lips pulled back revealing wickedly white teeth; an uncharacteristic howling laugh bubbled over Jackie's pink lips. Excitement glittered in her pale blue eyes as her laughter verged upon hysterical. Jackie spread her arms out like a bird taking flight, her boots finally meeting the ledge of the rooftop.

She dived.

She felt herself free falling, the wind whipping through her hair seeming to draw the tresses from her scalp and into the air, twisting like pale weeds from her paler skin. The previously modest cut she possessed now equivocated waist length cascading curls. And, unaware to her, it bleached in the twilight glow of the city lights to an unnatural shade of artificial white blond.

Desperately, Wade dragged himself towards the deadly drop, grunting profanities to himself, having dared to suspect that in leaving his motley apartment that very morning the day would be like any other. He had almost managed to grasp a glimpse of Jackie's plummeting form when she abruptly span mid fall, her pale hands having grasped a rusted and protruding fire escape bar. Utilising her momentum, she wrenched it free of the brick work and continued on her descent, now wielding the decayed bar as a weapon.

Wade shook his head in bewilderment, he simply could not comprehend how his quiet, reserved and unassuming Jackie was being presented before him in this hasty, instinctive and impulsive creature.

It was at this point that the overwhelmed man allowed his aching eyes to focus on the scene below in the adjoining alley.

A woman stood pressing her weight against the red brick wall within the confined space. Black trails of mascara tears and smeared red lipstick marred her face, a thin line of blood poured down her exposed thigh below her suggestively tight clothing. Her hands clutched frantically onto a small silver hand gun with quivering hands, aiming directly at the gruesome creature crouched on it's haunches before her. The woman once again cried out, barely managing to squeeze back the trigger with an echoing pop.

The bullet pierced the creatures pale flesh, causing it to cry out a furious howl and the woman's gun to clatter to the pavement. However, as the creature began to draw back it's tight lips to bare its glistening fangs, Jackie's boots smacked down upon the creatures spine with a resounding crack.

The creature was unfazed, however, and merely arched it's unnaturally protruding spine clicking and grating it back to its original alignment while Jackie rolled into an defensive crouch in front of the woman.

Wade watched on, unable still to coordinate his limbs and aid his increasingly unfamiliar friend, however the welcome sensation of feeling slowly began to ebb back into the bones of his legs. In a blink of an eye, Jackie sprang up and over the creature, the jagged bar clutched in her pale hands gouging a thick jagged tear into it's flesh. Injured and rapidly becoming at risk of being the weakest opponent, the creature released an ear splitting whine and bolted up the alley into the street, Jackie following in quick pursuit.

The creature skidded out into the path of the heavy early morning city traffic. An on coming commercial goods truck screeched to a halt behind the alien being, its driver slamming on the trucks bellowing horn repeatedly. The pale beast hissed at the offending vehicle, rearing back the rippling muscles on it's angular arm, intending to silence it's metal prey.

The pole of Jackie's makeshift javelin pierced the beast's tensed shoulder with a squealing squelch. Thick velvet blood the consistency of mud splattered across the small woman's frame and face, staining her skin and hair shades of pink. With a final scream of animosity, the obscene creature bounded over cars and pedestrians, disappearing into the cracks of the city.

Unbeknownst to the people below, Wade finally pulled himself to his feet, and began a stumbling chase along the rooftops of the city, intent on tracking down and slaying the beast before it found its next victim. Looking back over his shoulder at Jackie, who stood like a marble pillar in the centre of the street, Wade wordlessly begged that she'd understand his desertion.

All stood still for several seconds, all present onlookers stood stock still in shock over what they paid witness to. A sudden moment of clarity rushed over Jackie, with a shuddering gasp, she hesitantly dragged her eyes down to her hands, of which might as well had been of a stranger. What had she just done? Never before had Jackie considered herself a particularly brave or courageous person, but then again she'd never been this... This _person_ , before.

As Jackie reflected on the events of the past 5 minutes, a nervous laugh echoed a few feet behind her, a high pitched voice calling out.

"Hey, thanks a lot kid, I tell ya, I was way out of my depth just there."

The woman from the alley. Jackie chuckled lightly and pressed her hands against her stomach, a building uneasiness grew within her, filling her with instinctual fear. A strange sensation overcame the skin of her now delicate features; raising her fingers and pressing them below her cheekbones, the increasingly distressed girl felt the flesh bubbling as though exposed to acid.

A croaking of a weathered door hinge resounded from the truck of which had narrowly escaped the rampage of the alien, a lumbering man in his later years emerged.

"Yeh, thing almost got my truck... Hey, I guess not all heroes in this town wear capes-"

Hysterical screaming pierced the air.

All heads whipped round to study the presence of a young woman clutching at a small child, who'd presumably emerged from the safety of their home in all of the commotion. Briefly, bystanders franticly searched the street, murmurs of terror filled the air in fear of the beast's return.

However, the woman's piercing eyes were locked firmly and unmistakably on the startled expression of Jackie's face.

"MURDERER!"

All eyes span to follow her gaze, Jackie span in confusion to meet each face of disgust, horror and fear that graced each and everyone of the faces she met with her own.

"MONSTER!"

Similar insults impaled Jackie as the crowds drew closer, no longer their eyes full of praise and appreciation, but instead hostility dripped from every revolted stare and quivering voice.

Suddenly, Jackie felt a flash of pain reverberate through her skull as her body was flung to the ground. Cries of rejoice roared up from the bystanders, each recognising the cause of her agony to be one half of the Knights who protected their crime ridden streets. Jackie lay face down, her cheek pressed into the grit of the road. Pained, Jackie raised herself onto her elbows, she felt blood and spit dribble down from her cracked lips and cheek bone, where already a purple and blue bruise blossomed. Jackie almost cried out in shock at her face, reflected in a grimy puddle beneath her head. A red and irritated looking rip of scarred flesh ran in a curved line from the corners of her lips to the tips of her ears, creating the appearance of a wicked smiles.

Again, the steel clad boot crunched down into her ribs, kicking her over onto her front like one might kick a littered can, and pressing down into her screeching ribs.

Snapping open her eyelids, Jackie drank in the form that towered above her. The man was young, hardly more than a boy, dark locks of raven hair sprang from his head, matched in darkness by the black mask that disguised his eyes.

A grin ripped across his face, a dazzling grin bared in triumph and glittering in the morning light. Opening her blood stained lips to speak her protests, the boy slammed a pole of polished steel across her jaw, a bored sigh of arrogance escaping his lips.

The crowd screamed in reverence.

All hushed, however, when a dark figure emerged from the shadows, and the boy's easy smile melted down into a frown from his features. Stepping away from Jackie's crumpled form, an uneasy laugh bubbled past the boy's lips.

"Just another mindless follower, boss... Nothing special."

The imposing man was like a black pillar. Two spires sprouted from his armoured skull, creating the impression of demonic horns, spines also jutted from his lower arms and shins added to this otherworldly image. The only proof of his humanity was the small patch of pink skin exposed and visible below his masked eyes, his lips pressed into a hard line.

He paused above the girl curled upon the floor, his eyes calculating and observant. Reaching down with a leather clad hand, the man grasped Jackie by the scruff of her now dirtied white vest top and wrenched her up, off the ground, to his eye level.

The two stared at each other in silent evaluation, both attempting to figure the intentions of the other out. Jackie was surprised to find his eyes a startling garnet blue, having half expected crimson red devil's eyes. A whispering rustle began to slowly sweep through the girl's mind. Dismissible at first as the whistle of the wind, the indeterminable voices became malicious and insistant, seeming to claw behind her eyes and up her throat. Jackie's brow furrowed in pain as the indiscernible muttering grew louder and louder, until finally, the words became clear and seemed to grasp hold of her mind and tongue.

"Hello... B-Man."

Without a second of hesitation, the demonic figure sneered and began dragging her towards a white van where nurses and men in white over coats stood with open arms, having arrived soon after the duo. Not understanding the implications of her words, Jackie became frantic, fighting desperately to escape the man's clutches, broken words of objection spluttering over her stuttering lips.

With a grunt of effort, the small framed girl managed to break loose of her captor, however, in doing so spun round and ran straight into his younger partner. As the boy once again sneered and reared back his fist to lay into her submission, Jackie felt herself panic, and in a moment of fear flung out her bare hand and pushed against the boy's bare face.

 _A flash of white agony raked through the minds of both parties, time seemed to slow and the two were felt outside of their own bodies. Without warning, images began flooding into Jackie's mind: A circus big top, the strain of a tight-rope, white grip powder rubbed into flesh. Jackie felt her heart thundering inside of her chest, bursting through her ribs as the images grew increasingly disturbing: the frayed ends of a safety rope, the screeches of a terrified audience, bodies dropping from the sky like shot down game and finally, a sickening crunch._

Jackie crumpled to her knees, her shaking fingers trailing down the boy's chest uselessly searching for grip. The boy stumbled back, his jaw slack as the white pain he had been experiencing seeped from his mind. Jackie began to mutter as the doctors moved to hustle her into the van.

"They didn't realise- my fault... Should have warned them-"

The boy clutched hold of the girls hair, ripping back her head, forcing her eyes to meet his own.

"What did you do to me!?"

Her blue eyes seemed to look straight through him, darting back and forth as though watching unseen events unfold. The boy released her in shock, familiarity singing through his mind in response to her ramblings.

"Not my fault- was it? They flew... So beautiful I wish- I wish it had been me! The Flying Graysons together again..."

The doors to the white van slammed shut, leaving the dumbstruck boy to simply stare as the vehicle sped away to it's destination. A heavy hand bared down upon his broad shoulders.

"Don't listen to her Robin. She's insane. We need to catch up to her accomplice, cameras have picked up a masked man fleeing the scene."

Shaking his head, Robin blinked against the toxic emotions threatening to resurface after suppression for so long.

The Dark Knight and Robin began their hunt of the wanted man.


End file.
